Category Archives: gps

Instead of showing a flat, bird eye view of your destination route, the Thinkware I-Navi K2 navigation unit spices things up a bit with a little 3D graphics action. This provides the driver with better orientation on where the exact destination is relative to the car’s current location. Beyond the graphics, the I-Navi K2 does double duty as a video and MP3 player, featuring a 4.8-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) LCD, 256MB of RAM, built-in microphone, Bluetooth, integrated speakers with Yamaha 3D sound chip, 8GB SDHC memory card, DMB TV tuner, and a Geomagnetic sensor (G-sensor) — which is a 3-axis sensor able to detect the absolute orientation of the North Pole for better reliability in its path finding capabilities. Photo viewer, games, and e-book reader round out the features list.

For the driver’s safety, the Thinkware I-Navi K2 can sync with Bluetooth enabled phones to automatically take incoming calls. The I-Navi K2 can be used as a “hands-free” set using its built-in microphone. The GPS unit will hit Korea for 549,000 KRW ($549 USD).

Do people still use PDAs these days? Apparently, Getac thinks so. Getac has announced its rugged PS535 PDA that is PS535 MIL-STD-801F compliant, so it can withstand vibrations and shock abuse. In fact, it can withstand 2,000 1.6-foot drops. On top of that, the PDA meets IEC-529 standards for water and dust resistance. Probably aimed at the government/military users, the PS535 features:

Like always, here’s another gadget that won’t be hitting this side of the pond. From Finedrive comes the CUVi, one of the smallest navigational and DMB device I have ever seen. Set to hit the Korean market, the CUVi comes with a 3.5-inch display in a compact and lightweight form — weighing 152g or 0.34 lbs. It supports music, video, and DMB playback. Estimated battery life is 2 hours.

O’Neill, the sports clothing company, has announced the NavJacket, a sweater jacket with a built-in GPS. The NavJacket looks like your ordinary ski/snowboarding sweater jacket, except it has got a flexible GPS LED display sewn onto the left sleeve. The display provides information about your current speed, distance traveled, and weather forecasts. It also has built-in speakers inside the hood to provide audio instructions. In addition, the NavJacket allows wearers to connect their cell phone to the GPS, providing the phone with 3D maps and points of interests throughout the resort. Other reported features include the “find a friend”, which allows you to locate your friends on the slopes or follow the route they took. O’Neill plans to release the consumer version in time for the 2008/2009 Winter season.

We hear news stories of lost snowboarders every winter. The NavJacket should help prevent snowboarders from getting lost should they travel off course.

From Korean manufacturer, Bluebird, comes the Pidion BM-350. It’s a new PDA phone that runs Windows Mobile 6 with 3G and GPS (using the SiRF III chip) support. And, of course, like most overseas gadgets, we’re (U.S.) probably gonna miss out on this one as well… It should be out in Europe later this year for around 500 Euros ($770).